"Public financial support of the production would not be contrary to public policy" -- Bill C-10, s.120(1) (3), clause (a) (ii)
Just as the Canadian Senate was about to pass a 500-page Income Tax Bill (C-10) last week, an eagle-eyed lawyer spied the above-quoted 13 little words. These words would allow the Minster of Canadian Heritage and a committee of Department of Justice officials to decide if a completed film or television series is "contrary to public policy" and thereby to deny the production a vital tax credit.
Without such credits, many great shows and films simply would not get made. The potential for politically motivated, subjective censorship -- by government officials operating without any guidelines -- was immediately obvious to me and other members of the Canadian production community.
Since then, the shock and dismay has reverberated across Canada -- and around the world, to our co-production and co-financing partners.
What seems to have escaped Ottawa's attention is that television programs and award-winning feature films require an entire industry -- writers, directors, producers, actors, set designers, technicians, broadcasters and distributors. This is a $5-billion-a-year industry employing 127,000 Canadian creators and technicians working through 600 English and French, small and medium sized businesses across Canada.
This creates high value jobs, and produces significant exports. It also fulfills the cultural mandate of telling Canada's stories to Canadians and the world. The work they do affirms our personality as a sovereign nation.
This is a government that is supportive of entrepreneurship. So where are the Ministers of Industry, of Finance, of Foreign Affairs, of Human Resources and External Commerce -- people who, in the face of C-10, might have a concern about the economic health and survival of this industry?
We also have questions about the origin of these 13 words. Are we to believe Charles McVety, president of the socially conservative Canada Family Action Coalition, who claims paternity? He credits his unregistered lobbying efforts with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Justice Ministers Rob Nicholson, as well as "numerous meetings" with the PMO.
Or are we to believe the Heritage Minister when she says that her "government is deeply committed to freedom of expression and will continue to support the creation of edgy, entertaining Canadian content" and that "Bill C-10 has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with the integrity of the tax system"?
Given the benign neglect of the cultural industries by this government in the last three budgets, some doubt is warranted. All Canadians -- not just members of the arts community -- should be concerned about the consequence of a measure brought in by stealth, side-stepping any opportunity for discussion about guidelines with those potentially affected.
By creating a climate of unpredictability in the funding system, this section of the Bill, has created an immediate censorship chill -- a chill to producers, creators and funders (including Telefilm and broadcasters).
The chill extends to the foreign investors who contribute to our budgets, and a chill to the banking system that finances our shows. Bill C-10 makes lending to film companies riskier -- because it makes it uncertain whether tax credits will be issued at the end of any production.
This is not to say that there should be no guidelines regarding what productions can qualify for tax credits. But these guidelines already exist: at Telefilm, at the provincial agencies, at the CRTC and even in the Criminal Code (which at least explicitly allows for artistic exemption, which C-10 does not). To create another, unpredictable, layer of oversight is unnecessary.
We can imagine that the potential effect of these rules might have been when The Boys of St Vincent, Crash, The Sweet Hereafter, Borderline or The Valour and the Horror were produced.
Canadians are fortunate to have a film and television industry that, while econimically fragile, is culturally vibrant. Bill C-10 could change all that. At the very least, Canadians deserve a chance to debate those 13 little words before this clause in the Income Tax Bill is applied. - Arnie Gelbart is CEO and executive producer of Gala-film, an independent film and television production company based in Montreal.
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